InquiryMan

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Posts by InquiryMan

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  13

  Change in membership rolls Norway

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watchtower society in norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.. now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities.

  as a registered faith community, jws, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government.

  that is calculated on basis of the number of members... in times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. the money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as norway has a state church.

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  InquiryMan

  One can enlist children when the parents belong to a faith community. When they are 15 they can choose themselves according to law. There has been no reports whatsoever in the press that this is a move on part of the government.

  This is an excerpt from their annual report written to the authorities:

  In 2009, the religious community that we are from 2010 will only apply for grants for the baptized members. Reason for this change is that we want to do it the same way in Norway that Jehovah's Witnesses do elsewhere around the world, although we are aware that in accordance with Norwegian law we also have the opportunity to count non-baptized persons as members, as we have done until now. The new practice means, for example, that we no longer make use of the opportunity to to include children of baptized members as eligible members..
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  13

  Change in membership rolls Norway

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watchtower society in norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.. now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities.

  as a registered faith community, jws, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government.

  that is calculated on basis of the number of members... in times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. the money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as norway has a state church.

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  InquiryMan

  Yes, exactly, that is why I was surprised that someone suggested that was the motive of reducing the number of members...
• 
  13

  Change in membership rolls Norway

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watchtower society in norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.. now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities.

  as a registered faith community, jws, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government.

  that is calculated on basis of the number of members... in times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. the money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as norway has a state church.

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  InquiryMan

  It is kind of interesting how much you put an American way of thinking into the Scandinavian tax model... Religions are not taxated here. If the Wathctower society had been threatened with some sort of of taxation it sure would have been in the news a long time ago.... Media here very easily pick up JW related news... Even the new understanding of 1914 and civil service made its way into the newspapers weeks before the Watchtower was published.
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  13

  Change in membership rolls Norway

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watchtower society in norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.. now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities.

  as a registered faith community, jws, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government.

  that is calculated on basis of the number of members... in times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. the money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as norway has a state church.

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  InquiryMan

  Of course we do not know if they have any hidden motives. But according to law all are allowed to include children in their membership basis.. So definitely the witnesses have not done anything wrong in doing that....
• 
  13

  Change in membership rolls Norway

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watchtower society in norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.. now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities.

  as a registered faith community, jws, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government.

  that is calculated on basis of the number of members... in times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. the money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as norway has a state church.

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  InquiryMan

  Thanks for the excellent explanation in english you provided ;-)

  The amount is now risen to NOK 357 a year. That is roughly 45 Euros or slightly less or close to 60 dollars.
• 
  13

  Change in membership rolls Norway

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watchtower society in norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.. now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities.

  as a registered faith community, jws, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government.

  that is calculated on basis of the number of members... in times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. the money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as norway has a state church.

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• 

  InquiryMan

  The Watchtower Society in Norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.

  Now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities. As a registered faith community, JWs, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government. that is calculated on basis of the number of members... In times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. The money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as Norway has a state church. They give away several hundreds of thousands dollars by doing this.

  I do not think one can play the greedy card against them in this case.

  When a person gets baptized or DA or are DF they will get a certificate of enrollment or closure of enrollment.
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  43

  Was the legend about Smurfs being demonic just an urban legend, or was it mentioned in the literature?

  by IsaacJ22 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i never heard about the smurfs being evil until i joined the forum.

  but when i look in the volume library, the word doesn't come up.

  i was wondering if anyone ever heard mention of it in the literature--as in, was it an official position?.

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  InquiryMan

  Fortunately it did not come to Scandinavia...
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  22

  How many JW's are doing bad things each year worthy of being DF'd?

  by dissed in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for a religious group that claims to be above reproach, with a self proclaimed, excellent reputation for godliness, i don't feel that claim is quite true.. in fact, i think its a sham to make those assertions.

  they trully should not feel they are different from any organized group, when it comes to its members following righteous standards.

  true, the wt would like all to believe they are clean and morally straight, that they are different and not tainted from the world.

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  InquiryMan

  My congregation must have been a spiritual paradise compared to what is being told here...
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  39

  What percentage of JWs have been disfellowshipped?

  by JWoods in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was just thinking about people i knew - and i come up with around 15% who were disfellowshipped.

  some got re-instated, some left for good, i even know a few who were disfellowshipped more than once.

  it may be even higher than that - certainly it is pretty common in jwland.. i know that other religions have a theoretical state of disfellowshipping - the catholics have excommunication, for example.

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  InquiryMan

  I had a magazine route with a mormon bishop... We had several discussion on DF.

  They perhaps DF people more frequently than JW do, but the implications are not that severe.

  They emphasis that love and encouragement is extended to the DF one. Shunning as such is not practices was the answer he gave me.

  But maybe it was "double" speak... on his part.. Theocratic warfare in a way.
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  34

  Inappropriate - Sick - WT & Awake articles over the years.

  by Essan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i remember as a kid reading an article - not sure if watchtower or awake - which terrified the life out of me!

  i remember thinking at the time "ok, this may be true, but i'm just a kid, i shouldn't be reading this!".

  some of the details remain imprinted on my mind decades later.

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  InquiryMan

  my mother refused to read those yearbooks.